9 June 2009Funny Old World, Isn’t It?

A few weeks ago I finished my certification to teach English as a foreign language. Since I live in New York City, I naturally have not found a job in my field. So I may soon be taking the route of so many unemployed Englishy people and selling my skills on the foreign market.

As it happens, the part of the foreign market that will pay the most is located in the Middle East. I’m currently talking with a recruiting agency in Saudi Arabia. My mom is currently panicking. She just sent me an article by Megan K. Stack, former Cairo Bureau Chief and current staff writer for the LA Times. I think it’s terribly ironic that my only motivation for going to a place that denies women so many freedoms we enjoy in the US is to find a higher degree of financial freedom. The country respects women enough to give them visas so they can bring Western culture, in the form of the English language, into said country, and to pay them ungodly amounts of money to do so, but not enough to let them drive or wear their professional apparel of choice in public. Doublethink, anyone?

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Many people view the abaya as a form of repression towards women. However, it is a form of protection, not oppression to them. When they are covered completely from head to toe, with a formless shape, it prevents men from seeing them just as sexual creatures. My sister lives in Yemen right now with her husband who is working out there, and she LOVES the abaya.

I hope if you do end up working in Saudi Arabia, you make several good friendships with Arabic women. You just might realize not all of them are as oppressed as our Western culture seems to think. Sure, their is oppression, but it’s not always how we see it.

It may prevent men from seeing them as sexual creatures, but it can also prevent men from seeing them as human creatures. A black sheet that isn’t allowed to speak to men in public is hardly “protected.”

From what I’ve read, Yemen is a bit better than SA. Of course I’ve never been there. I also realize that not everyone is going to feel oppressed by a free pass to never worrying about your wardrobe :-D. However, my beef is when the abaya is required rather than optional. That’s when it becomes oppressive, in my opinion.

Anyway, I’m going to Egypt instead of SA, so I will be free to meet abaya-wearers while wearing my own (modest) garb of choice.

Thanks for your input; it’s important to remember that there are a lot of different views on this subject.

One of the major misconceptions about the hijab (covering of the body except the face and hands) is that young women are forced to wear it by their parents or by male family members. I applaud those who wear the hijab (especially those who wear it for God and with good intentions) not because of social norms. According to Islam, this external covering is really a reflection of an inner commitment to dedicate oneself to the worship of the Creator..
Whether the hijab constrains or liberates women is an ongoing debate. One study, done at the University of California, found that media photographs emphasize the faces of men but the bodies of women. In the average picture of a woman, less than half the photo (45%) was devoted to the woman’s face. In the pictures of men, nearly two-thirds (65%) of the photograph featured the man’s face.
The same article reports the results of an experiment conducted with a group of 40 male and 40 female college students. These students were told that a study of freehand drawing styles was under way and were assigned to draw either a man or a woman, capturing “the character of a real person.” It was observed that the men drawn had very distinct features, with close attention paid to facial details. However, the images drawn of the women were mostly of the body, with the faces vague or even featureless…
Perhaps, as women de-emphasize their bodies, this severe imbalance will be at least partially rectified. Meanwhile, Islam provides a solution to this problem – one which dignifies and honours all women.
slam is known as a religion concerned with community cohesion and moral boundaries, and therefore hijab is a way of ensuring that the moral boundaries between unrelated men and women are respected. In this sense, the term hijab encompasses more than a scarf and more then a dress code. It is a term that denotes modest dressing and modest behaviour. For instance, if a Muslim woman was wearing a scarf but at the same time using bad language, she would not be fulfilling the requirements of hijab.
In brief, the aura of privacy created by hijab is indicative of the great value Islam places upon women.

It is true that in some families and in some cultures women are forced to wear hijab but this is not the norm. The Quran clearly states that there is no compulsion in religion (2:256).

Anyways, I’m an Egyptian trainer giving courses; English as a foreign language, and since you will be here in Egypt to teach English as a foreign language I’d like to keep a contact with you Coffeesoptalk:).

I’ve been in Egypt for a few months now, and I’ve had some longish conversations with one of my fellow teachers who recently converted to Islam and wears the hijab.

I do understand that ideally the whole idea of women covering their bodies is exactly what you describe. I also know that it is a choice for many women, and even for the women who wear it mostly because of social norms, it’s very much a part of who they are. After talking somewhat in-depth with my teaching assistant, who is Egyptian and grew up with Islam and the idea of the hijab, I understand that she’s actually very proud of her “dress code” and sees her hijab as a way to communicate to men that she is a serious, respectable woman who has personal standards and convictions.

I don’t have any problem with the hijab as such. My concerns are twofold:

1. I respect women who wear the hijab voluntarily, but I feel that the whole idea that a woman or man must dress a certain way in order to be viewed as “respectable” can lead to a lot of problems and narrow-mindedness. I understand that this concept is not limited to Islam.

2. Whatever the ideal is as presented in the Koran, I get the general feeling that women actually aren’t as respected here in Egypt as they are in, say, New York (where I lived before coming here). I don’t think that’s necessarily because of anything directly to do with Islam, but it seems that just wearing the hijab doesn’t actually solve the problem of female objectification.

I think that the problem of women in Islam is similar to the problem of women in Christianity: at the time that the religion was founded, it was a huge boon to women as far as raising their status and encouraging men to give them more respect. However, in our current times, a strict interpretation of either religion still leads to some discrimination because the sacred text is from a culture that had rigidly defined gender roles, therefore people who want to step outside of or blur these roles face backlash from traditionalists.

I think it is great that the people posting here are keeping an open mind. it is true that some women wear it for their faith, some for social norms, and some just to be respected. But no matter the reason, women are not treated as equals every where in the world. while i wish this wasn’t true, it won’t change over night. I think going to another country and having to wear something like the abaya is a great opportunity to learn and understand what life is like for women in other places. I think it is also good for people living abroad to show that they have respect for other cultures and hopefully that will be reciprocated in some way.

The problem in egypt is not an Islamic issue its more culture thing, a month ago I was there and I wasn’t wearing a hijab and you see allot of people staring at you in a weird way, where in Islam such thing is prohibited in our religion, I am a Saudi and have been living my whole life here in Saudi Arabia, we have many western people coming over to work, many of those people living here are actually enjoying it, of course they feel the differences, but they have their freedom, try applying in Saudi Arabia am sure you will like it.
Take care